Photo credit: Gaëlle Leroyer
Born and raised in Montreal, Naomie Caron graduated from Cégep Marie-Victorin School of Fashion in 2011. At a young age, she was exposed to entrepreneurship through her mother, who had launched and sold several businesses.
With a business idea of running a handmade swimwear brand using mostly recycled fabric, she launched SELFISH Swimwear, a clothing company based in sustainability and in contrast of the fashion industry’s exploitation of the environment and the workforce. According to her bio, Naomie Caron has one ultimate goal: “To change women’s perceptions of their self-image. Women have been ashamed of their bodies for way too long and searching for a bathing suit has been a painful experience for many of them”.
Naomie struggled with maximizing her sale strategy, but her biggest obstacle was her sense of feeling isolated and alone. She then discovered YES through a google search. “As a francophone, I was always looking at programs and support in French,” Naomie says. “Then suddenly, I thought of all the other programs available nationwide in English that could offer more opportunities.”
“I was not always feeling confident in decision making because I had no one to discuss or to argue with on the best practices to make and decisions to take,” she continues. “I needed mainly personal support but also, someone telling me like it is and guiding me to improve my sales, and this is exactly what my YES Business Coach did.”
After several virtual meetings, Naomie was able to gain guidance enough to open different sales channels, to maximize her customer’s reach, acquire feedback on her website, to strengthen her conversion rates and to clearly define SELFISH’s brand values.
“Today, my brand has greatly evolved,” Naomie says. “When meeting my coach for the first time, I had one employee part time and now I have 3 employees. I am on the verge of exporting (wholesale) to the USA, something my coach is always pushing me to pursue, so hopefully it will happen this year or next.”
“With YES, I found the support I needed to gain the confidence to be a great entrepreneur and a successful swimwear brand. Thanks YES!”